Mimusops elengi L. - SAPOTACEAE

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Vernacular names : Tamil: MagizhamMalayalam: Bakulam, Elenji, Ilanni, MukuraKannada: Pokkalathu

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Botanical descriptions Ecology Distribution Literature

Botanical descriptions :

Habit : Large trees up to 35 m tall.
Trunk\bark : Bark dark grey, longitudinally fissured, lenticellate; blaze pink.
Branchlets : Latex white.
Exudates : Branchlets terete, puberulous when young, later glabrous.
Leaves : Leaves simple, alternate, spiral; petiole 1-2.5 cm long, glabrous, terete and canaliculate towards apex; pubescent when young, later glabrous; lamina 7-14  2.5-7 cm, elliptic-oblong, apex shortly acuminate with blunt tip, base rounded or acute, margin slightly undulate, coriaceous, glabrous, shining above; midrib raised above; secondary nerves ca. 18 pairs, slender, looped near margin; tertiary nerves admedially ramified.
Flowers : Flowers white, in axillary fasicles; pedicel up to 2 cm.
Fruit& seed : Berry, ellipsoid, reddish-brown when ripe; seed one.

Ecology :

Canopy trees in evergreen forests up to 1200 m.

Distribution :

Indomalaysia; in the Western_Ghats- throughout.

Literature :

Linnaeus, Sp. Pl. 349. 1753; Gamble, Fl. Madras 2: 765. 1993 (re.ed.); Sasidharan, Biodiversity documentation for Kerala- Flowering Plants, part 6: 268. 2004; Saldanha, Fl. Karnataka 1: 332.1984; Cook, Fl. Bombay 2: 95.1908; Almeida, Fl. Maharashtra 3:169.

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